Title: Autumnal Words

Author: Josef Hanzlik

In: Sport 8: Autumn 1992

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, March 1992, Wellington

Part of: Sport

Keywords: Verse Literature

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Sport 8: Autumn 1992

Autumnal Words

page 36

Autumnal Words

October wind like Savonarola
rips up the incunabula in the trees
and sienna and rust
and ochre
         black
             and Bordeaux
free from the delicate illuminations
into the lap of clay

Some words
which as yet have no name
some words as lithe as lilies
huddle together as if in love
as if in anguish
maybe white words or azure words
maybe words like screaming silver
maybe words like silenced death

Ah what printshop owner and what publisher
ah what Johann Gensfleisch Gutenberg
ah what printer with a saffron soul
will set these words of autumn
on silken tissue paper
on gossamer-light paper
on hand-made paper
with the water mark
of two mute hearts?

Translated by Ewald Osers